


Hurt and comfort

by Pearlislove



Series: Seraphina Picquery/Percival Graves Family series [13]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 22:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10728111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Queenie offers comfort and support to a struggling friend in the wake of  a great tradgedy(Sequel to Not even good people last forever)





	Hurt and comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to Not even good people last forever, might be hard to understand if you have nto read that story. Enjoy!

Walking across the length of his living room floor in long, purposeful strands, Percival gentle keeps bouncing the three year old in his arms to keep her from crying. She’s been upset since the moment he picked her up from her aunt’s, and as far as he figured, she probably wanted her mother.

 

Percival sigh wearily, pressing the baby closer to his shoulder, burrowing his face against the back of her head and ignoring the few persistent tears getting caught in her soft blond curls. She was just a child, hardly more than a baby, and someone so young couldn’t possibly know, that she was never going to see her mother again.

 

He had wanted to tell his sister what had happened, when he had come to pick Ariel up after work, but hadn't been able to. It was a matter of the congress, and the public was not to be informed until Friday the same week. Even though he knew his sister probably counted as ‘immediate family’ in a roundabout sort of way, and no one would have ever blamed him for a moment of weakness, he hadn’t felt that he was able to.

Deep down, he knew that Marion Graves probably had suspected something. She was a clever woman, and she knew her brother than anyone. She had certainly understood that not all was as it should, for he had picked his daughter up, and not Seraphina. When they were not staying together, Seraphina was  _ always  _ tasked with the pick up, since the baby slept in her apartment. Today, however, Seraphina could not have picked her up, and Percival hadn't dared telling her, and as such all she was left with was her suspicions.

 

He has been pacing across the floors of his apartment for god knows how long, and is still going, when the doorbell rings. Carefully securing the sleeping three year old on his shoulder, he quickly stepped down the hallway and up to the thick, sturdy front door of his apartment. He had gotten it, brand new and thicker than a normal door, after he had gotten back from the whole ordeal with Grindelwald. It had been the only thing allowing him - and Seraphina - to sleep at night for the longest time.

 

As he opens it, he can't help but let out a noise of surprise, entirely unlike himself, because there's Queenie Goldstein and out of all the people in this world who could have been standing on the other side of the door, he would not have expected her to be there. Quickly, he step aside, hoping that she understand the invitation even though both his arms are occupied by holding his sleeping daughter and he lacks words to say anything. 

 

Smiling, Tina’s angel-like little sister step inside the surprisingly spacious hallway and begin to remove her coat and hat. “Tina asked me to come here.” She tells him, her voice soft and kind like it is when he’s been up doing paperwork all night and she asks if he would like an extra strong cup of coffee before he goes home. “She thought you’d need me, after everything that has happened.”

 

“She is not supposed to have told anyone. I told her not to.” Percival comments, not being able to help his own slightly grumpy attitude though technically he did not mind. He trusted Queenie Goldstein almost as much as he did her sister.

 

“Distressed thoughts are easy to read. Tina was  _ very  _ upset, it wasn't her fault. Besides, I would have been informed Thursday morning either way.” She smiles, again, and Percival bites his lip hard to stop himself from pointing out that he told Tina she’d have to use occlumency if necessary to keep it secret. Queenie probably already knew that anyway. “But the important thing is you. Tina was worried that you were more hurt than you let on. How are you?”

 

Finally, she finished putting away her clothes, and turn fully towards him, still smiling though he can read sympathy in her eyes. He immediately look down, staring at the floor like a sulle school child to avoid all that sympathy.

 

Percival Graves was big and strong and didn't accept sympathy, he didn't need it. Not now, not ever.

 

“I’m very sorry, Mr.Graves, but it is hard not to sympathies with someone who just lost their girlfriend to an as of yet uncaptured murderer, that could have killed your child as well had the timing been any different.” 

 

His head shoots up as soon as he hear her speaking, and he sees her sugar-sweet, slightly apologetic smile, and knows that she taped into his thoughts, feeling his hatred for her sympathy that she was displaying. Somewhere deep in his core, he felt he should be offended she had tapped into his thoughts like that, but at the same time it was such a relief to not have to  _ speak _ . That he could just  _ think  _ and she’d know it.

 

“You don’t have to speak at all, you know. Take a seat and leave the baby to me, and when I get back we can talk whichever way you want. With or without words. It's entirely your choice.” She smile, again, as patient and kind as alway, and stretch her arm towards the baby sleeping on his shoulder. Reluctantly, he lets go, letting Queenie’s thin arms envelope the heavily sleeping child as she walked off down the hall towards the living room. 

 

Queenie continues walking, taking off to the left down the hall to the bedroom, absentmindedly humming a lullaby, and Percival watched her go with a sudden sense of relief. Maybe talking this out with someone was what he needed - especially if that someone was as patient and kind as Queenie Goldstein. Sighing deeply, Percival finally followed the woman’s instructions and threw himself down on his back on one of the couches, exhaustion and sadness filling every part of his being as he put his legs up on the armrest and closed his eyes.

 

He doesn't know how long he keeps his eyes closed, half-dozing off as he tries to forget everything that has happened that he knows he will never forget, but finally, Queenie comes back, and she speaks.

 

“I put Ariel to bed. She should be sleeping soundly, so we can talk without interruption. Just between us adults.” Slowly, Percival opens his eyes, and he sees that she is sitting in the armchair next to the sofa, Seraphina’s favourite place. The thought of his beloved girlfriend that he’s lost make his chest and ache and his throat close up, and he's not sure that could speak of her with Queenie if he wanted to, for the words didn’t seem to want to make it to his lips.

 

He didn’t even know what you said, when you lost someone that meant so much.

 

“Whichever way you like, Mr.Graves, as I said. You don’t have to use actual words, if it's easier to just let out your thoughts.” She smiles, an ever so patient saint, and Percival smiles too even though there is nothing to smile at.

 

“You really ought to call me Percival, if you are going to stay.” Finally, he finds his voice, and the comment escapes his lips unbidden, the surprise surely showing in his face. He hadn’t meant to tell her that, but he means it. He’s had enough of being Mr.Graves already.

 

Queenie giggles, the sound like silver  bells in paradise. “Alright then, Percival it is. Now tell me how are you actually feeling?” After saying it, she suddenly becomes serious, light eyes becoming focused, and he can feel another presence trying to push their way into his mind. On pure instinct, he check the source of the unfamiliar presence, and once he feels safe that it is Queenie trying to get access, he let her in. He let her see his unfiltered thoughts, hoping it can help her understand how he feels.

 

_ I’m tired... It feels like...this...will never be over...and it’ll just be a black hole eating me up a little more everyday _

 

_ I fear for Ariel...what will I do...how will I...she won’t have a mother to grow up to... She deserves that...I won't ever be that…I can _ **_’_ ** _ t be enough for my child… _

 

He uses his mind, let the words and thoughts flow freely to tell her exactly how it felt. He surprised himself when he let the thoughts loose, though, because earlier all he’d felt was the pain, the aching loneliness of having lost someone he promised never to leave. But as soon as he let everything loose he could feel himself drifting towards the thought of Ariel. What was he to do with her now? He didn't know if he could take care of a child on his own. What would happen to her, how would it affect her? Without Seraphina, she would have no mother. 

 

Slowly, he can feel his thoughts starting to run away with him, dragging his consciousness with it as he felt deeper and deeper into a pit full of worry and despair from which there seemed to be no escape.

 

“Schh, it’s okay, calm down…It’s going to be fine. Ariel loves her father, and she is no doubt going to have a great childhood with such a caring father, even if she will not have a mother. It will be alright.” A soft, calm, kind voice talk to him, and he opens his eyes that he did not know he closed, looking over at Queenie who is watching him in worry. Her tiny, smooth hand is squeezing his big calloused fist and somehow grounding him, bringing him back from the brink of despair to a place where he felt safe and okay.

 

After a few more moments, he smile. It's his first smile for the evening and it's very wobbly, but real as he squeezed Queenie’s fragile little hand back and feel so immensely grateful for having such good employees and friends. 

 

He had needed to talk, to expel some of all the feelings that built up inside him over the last twelve or so hours. But in his own way at his own speed, and Queenie had accommodated for all that. He hadn’t even had to physically speak for her to understand and it had been such a  _ relief _ .

 

Sigh deeply once more, Percival leaned into the sofa, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep as Queenie watched him calmly from the side. Deep inside her, Queenie was worried. She worried for Percival and Ariel and Tina, who might have to go chasing after the President's murderer and might get in harms way. She was worried muggles would be framed for what had happened.

 

Yet she said nothing. Percival Graves didn’t need more fear and worry, and she couldn't take much because of having a bad day with her headaches. They both just needed calm and peace and a chance to talk, and Tina had insisted Queenie offer it to him.

 

Perched on the very edge of her seat in that comfortable arm chair, she watched as Percival drifted off to sleep, thinking of the future ahead of them, and soon enough joining him in the land of dreams.

 


End file.
